Handheld utensils are used every day to make people's lives easier. Certain utensils, such as forks and spoons, assist in the delivery of food from a plate or bowl to a person's mouth. Similarly, other utensils, such as pens and pencils, allow a person to write, draw, or otherwise record anything he or she wishes on a paper or substrate. Still further utensils such as toothbrushes allow a user to easily clean his or her teeth and gums. The quality of being handheld makes a utensil easy to use, maintain, and store.
However, given that handheld utensils are generally relatively small objects, it is easy for them to become lost or misplaced, or otherwise become buried underneath larger objects. For example, a user of a pen may set down the pen upon finishing a sentence, but later, after numerous papers have been placed over the pen, when the user subsequently requires it again, he or she may be unable to locate it underneath the papers. As such, it is desirable for a handheld utensil to provide some easy means of permitting its user to locate it in a short time, and it is further desirable that such means be inexpensive and not interfere with the character or operation of the utensil.
An option for solving the aforesaid problem is by introducing a self-righting or biasing element to the handheld utensil. A first solution for providing a self-righting handheld utensil is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,052 as a balancing pen. The disclosed balancing pen includes a bulb having a center of mass therein and rounded underside for balancing the pen when not in use, which bulb separates from the pen when the user requires use thereof. That is, the user may replace the pen within the bulb when same is not in use, and the bulb maintains the pen in a generally upright orientation. Regardless, this disclosure fails to teach a self-righting handheld utensil wherein the portion providing the self-righting feature remains coupled to the utensil itself during operative use of the utensil. In other words, should the user misplace the bulb while using the disclosed writing implement, this prior art disclosure would cease to operate as intended (in that the disclosed writing implement could no longer self-right).
Thus, while existing solutions show some self-righting features, various drawbacks, including those mentioned above, remain.
Consequently, there exists a need for a handheld utensil that self-rights itself to an upright vertical orientation when placed on a flat or substantially flat surface, and which comprises a weighted element as a base for providing for the self-righting features that does not need to be uncoupled from the use portion of the utensil in order for a user to operatively use the utensil.